What’s In Your Toothpaste? – Redmond Earthpaste Product Review

For the past two months now Jonathan and I have tried our hand at making our own homemade toothpaste. It all started when I began researching the science behind the no shampoo method of hair care. The realization that I was just blindly putting something on my scalp every day without regard to it’s effect on the pH balance of my scalp, or any harmful ingredients it may contain was an eye opener for me.

Then I started thinking, well, hair is one thing but YIKES, what am I putting in my mouth and rubbing around on my gums every day?! What do I plan on putting in my DAUGHTER’S mouth once she sprouts teeth?!

I ran to my bathroom cupboard, grabbed the toothpaste and wrote down the ingredients that I knew absolutely nothing about. I took my list to Google, and a simple perusal of the ingredients on my harmless looking tube of commercial toothpaste displayed a laundry list of chemicals, additives, detergents and non-tooth-friendly sweeteners that I’d just been slathering all over one of the most porous, absorbent, sensitive-to-chemicals portions of my body.

Even if toothpaste is never swallowed, these ingredients can be absorbed within seconds through the skin on the lips, or through the mucous membranes in the mouth. According to the Physician’s Desk Reference, the mucosal lining in the mouth has an absorption efficiency of over 90 percent! Because of this, these carcinogens get into your blood, your brain, and your cells IMMEDIATELY.

5 Common Ingredients Found in Toothpaste That Are Horrible For Your Health (Among Dozens of Others!)

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate –

SLS is perhaps the MOST dangerous ingredient in personal care products from shampoo to toothpaste. Because it has a foaming property, it is added to toothpastes to generate foam and give the impression that the toothpaste is “working”. And that’s ALL IT DOES. It has literally ZERO beneficial qualities. In fact, SLS has been found to be corrosive and harmful to skin tissue according to the American College of Toxicity! The only products it is used in where it acts as an active ingredient is in the cleaning industry, where it’s used as garage floor cleaners, paint solvents and engine degreasers!

Fluoride –

Flouride is the most controversial byproduct of industrial waste you’ll ever find. Natural fluoride DOES have an effect on slowing down tooth decay, and many dentists and toothpaste manufacturers just love it. Buuuuuuut, fluoride IS an internationally recognized poison. Cavity fighting qualities aside, fluoride is indisputably and notoriously toxic, often used as rat poison or insecticide. This is why toothpastes with fluoride have a warning advising to call poison control if more than a small amount is swallowed.

FD&C Color Dyes –

These are artificial dyes and colorings often found in mainstream toothpaste brands and a wide variety of other products. Recent studies indicate that FD&C Blue Dyes 1 & 2 can trigger a wide number of behavioral, learning, and health problems. Using FD&C Dyes yields the same effect as ingesting crude oil as it is synthesized from petroleum and made from coal tar oil – which is the black, sticky tar by-product of steel making and petroleum distillation. It contains numerous complex chemicals, none of which is good to be dumping on your gums.

Saccharin –

This artificial sweeteners primary ingredient is benzoic sulfimide, which is harmful to overall health. Saccharin was banned in the 1970’s because it proved to cause severe health problems – including cancer! – to rats in laboratories. However, because people liked the taste the ban was lifted, although the FDA still lists the substance as a possible human carcinogen!

Glycerin –

Glycerin is put in toothpaste to make it smooth and less chalky. However, when your teeth are coated with glycerin, bacteria is encapsulated. Glycerin itself is not horrible, but when it coats your teeth, it effectively prevents re-enamalization. Teeth are designed to regenerate themselves and absorb calcium and minerals, but brushing with glycerin stops that natural process.

The Hunt For the Perfect “Natural” Toothpaste

At this point I had flirted with the idea of trying some “natural toothpaste” companies out there, but when I visited my local health store, a quick glance of “natural” brands (Tom’s, Nature’s Gate, etc.) STILL sported ingredients I was trying to get away from: sodium lauryl sulfate, fluoride, glycerin. Seriously, WTF?

So after muttering, “And you call yourself natural?!” a couple of times at the inanimate objects on the supermarket shelf, I went on a quest to stock up on some basic ingredients for at home toothpaste experimentation! Since then, my husband and I have been playing mad kitchen scientists and experimenting with toothpaste recipes to share on my blog.

In doing so we’ve learned of some of THE BEST natural tooth care ingredients. We’ve fallen in love with xylitol, a natural sweetener that is AWESOME for tooth health and great for diabetes (if not on the pricier side). And while we’ve found ingredients that rock, and actually work BETTER than commercial brands ever have for us, we’re finding that the trick is to create a combination of ingredients that have a good consistency and texture, and that don’t taste like butt.

After three different batches of toothpastes that we’ve played around with over the past 8 or 9 weeks, we still haven’t found “THE” recipe that I would feel confident suggesting to my readers.

My Introduction to Redmond’s Earthpaste

After months of ongoing natural toothpaste experimentation, you can imagine my surprise when, after agreeing to review some Redmond Real Salt (I went after them for samples – you guys know me and my mineral salt addiction!) they sent me not only a box of salts (review to come!) but some samples of their natural toothpaste, Earthpaste!

At first I thought, well crap. I won’t use this stuff. It’s probably got fillers and additives like every other “natural” brand on the shelves. What am I going to do? I can’t review something I haven’t tried, and I won’t give away something on my blog that I wouldn’t use myself. DILEMMA!!

I’d actually sat down to e-mail the company before I stopped and read the ingredients list. Hold up. What’s this?! ALL NATURAL INGREDIENTS?!?! Like.. for reals??

Before I even knew it was their slogan I thought, “Holy Moly, that is amazingly natural toothpaste!” Here’s a closer look at each ingredient:

Redmond Clay – This is the primary ingredient in Earthpaste. Redmond Clay is a completely natural, food grade healing clay that has been used medicinally since ancient times. It works as a polishing cleanser on your teeth, with inherent antibacterial properties. When consumed, food grade Redmond Clay also promotes digestive health!

Xylitol – This is a natural sweetener that is extracted from woody, fibrous plant material, like shrubs, trees or bark. Redmond only sources non-GMO certified xylitol extracted from sustainable birch or corn cobs. Xylitol acts as a sweetener, (it tastes just like white table sugar!) and it has been shown to promote healthy teeth by fighting cavities and significantly reducing tooth decay.

Redmond Real Salt – Redmond’s signature salt (the reason I contacted them in the first place!) is a natural sea salt with more than 60 trace minerals! It is used in the toothpaste to enhance the flavor and lend antibacterial properties.

Essential Oils – These oils (they use different ones based on each toothpaste flavor) supports oral health with the various properties of the oils, ranging from anti-viral to anti-fungal properties. All of the oils leave your breath fresh and your mouth feeling clean.

My Thoughts on Redmond’s Earthpaste

We created Earthpaste because we were frustrated trying to find toothpaste pure enough for our kids to use. Some brands skipped sodium lauryl sulphate, but not titanium dioxide. Others were fluoride-free but still had glycerin. We wanted toothpaste so pure each ingredient would help support good health, and after a lot of careful research, we made Earthpaste.

It’s toothpaste unlike any other you’ve experienced. Earthpaste is safe to eat. Each ingredient has been used to support healthy systems. Earthpaste is amazingly natural toothpaste. You’ll see the difference on your brush and feel the difference in your mouth.

This automatically had me in favor of the tube of natural paste I held in my hand. But then came testing time. How would this product measure up on a toothbrush? Bum bum BUMMMM!!

Well, first off, the Earthpaste squeezed out of the tube at a consistency of a very thin toothpaste. The mixture was solid enough to sit ON the brush, but thin and moist enough that it spread evenly among my teeth, instead of gobbing up into little chunks in my mouth, like commercial paste sometimes ten to do.

The color of the paste is a light brown, which I’m sure may be off putting to some, but it appears to work as well (or better) than what you’d expect from a toothpaste. I tried the Wintergreen flavor, and the taste was pleasant and faintly sweet, leaving my mouth with a noticeably fresh tingle. The essential oil used in Earthpaste is much more bold than what I was putting in my homemade concoctions – and that’s not a bad thing! I was being a bit timid in my oil use, and now I see that this is one of the reasons my homemade pastes were more flops than successes. (Though I was getting close!)

Also, because Earthpaste does not contain any kind of foaming agents (and that is a VERY good thing!), for those uninitiated to “real” tooth cleansers, the toothpaste might feel thin in your mouth. My first time using a real homemade toothpaste I was so afraid it “must not be working” because of that thinness and lack of foam, but then I immediately noticed how clean, smooth and nice my teeth were, right away. I believe you’ll experience the same thing with Earthpaste.

And last but not least, Redmond Earthpaste’s pH balance rests between 9.6 – 9.7, which makes it perfect for fighting tooth decay and bacteria, and neutralizing / balancing your mouths natural pH level!

So to sum up, Redmond appears to have this whole natural toothpaste thing down! To date, this is THE BEST truly natural toothpaste brand I’ve encountered. While I’d like to continue playing kitchen scientist to mix and match my own toothpaste, this brand is one that I genuinely anticipate buying much more of in the future.

Gingi is a photographer, cosplayer, amateur chef, crazy cat lady, anime otaku, bookworm, generic geek, world traveler, conservative Christian, homeschooler, devoted military wife and stay at home new mother of two little girls.

Gingi blogs about anything and everything that is relevant to being a supermom, stay at home wife, homeschooler and geek girl! You can contact her at gingifreeman@gmail.com or via the contact form on her website at www.domesticgeekgirl.com

Gingi Freeman

Gingi is a photographer, cosplayer, amateur chef, crazy cat lady, anime otaku, bookworm, generic geek, world traveler, conservative Christian, homeschooler, devoted military wife and stay at home new mother of two little girls.
Gingi blogs about anything and everything that is relevant to being a supermom, stay at home wife, homeschooler and geek girl! You can contact her at gingifreeman@gmail.com or via the contact form on her website at www.domesticgeekgirl.com

Lol! I just retread that book Ghosts/Aliens. One of the big conspiracies they hear from their friend is about the foaming agent in toothpaste doing nothing but making people feel like it’s working.

Also, have you ever tried those little chalky toothpaste tablets? They had samples at a this all natural handmade soap place in LA. I have no clue what was in them. They were just tasty and safe to eat

I really really REALLY wish I could write my blog the way that book reads.. ya know, without people thinking I’m drunk and / or stoned. Visiting natural soap places?? Are you thinking of going natural? O.o

And to be honest the reason i went into the soap shop in the first place is because they are laid out like a bakery and know for most their soaps looking and smelling like some sort of food. I wanted to see if i could control myself not to eat one. But seeing as most toothpaste leaves me and my mouth feeling weird afterwards I was gonna make the switch to the tablets. But when I lived in silver lake it wasn’t practical do drive 30/45 minutes away and pay for parking to buy the tablets. But I’ve always wanted to use them and licorice root clean my teeth. Something about sticking a substance that isn’t safe to ingest in my mouth and rubbing it around with a plastic scrub brush always seemed weird to me

I was primarily using baking soda for the base of my homemade toothpaste as well, but I think I like the texture of clay a bit better. I also like that it is completely edible. From what I understand hydrogen peroxide is relatively safe for teeth, but prolonged use MIGHT cause enamel damage. I only use peroxide sparingly for occasional whitening benefits…

This is a great review! I just started using this toothpaste and did a Youtube video review on it. I bought mine from a local health food store, so it’s totally not a biased review! I actually really love it and I’m amazed at how smooth and clean my teeth feel after using it. It also tastes really great…I used the Wintergreen flavor. I’ve bought another tube I like it so much! It does take a little getting used to because it doesn’t foam and has that brownish gray color, but once you get used to it, there’s no turning back! xoxo

Thanks for all the great info on ingredients. I have one concern, though. Xylitol may be quite safe (and tasty!) for humans, but it is extremely toxic to dogs, so if there is a canine member of your household, any product containing it should be kept securely out of reach. Like anti-freeze, the sweet taste is attractive, and of course many dogs will just chew anything that they can get into . . .
I don’t know if this also applies to cats —